Construction Firm Lian Beng Wins S$90.2m Worth Of Contracts

Source : Channel NewsAsia, 12 March 2008












Singapore construction firm Lian Beng Group has won two contracts worth a total of S$90.2 million.























The first is a S$73.5 million contract to build a 21-storey freehold condominium Amber Residences along East Coast Road. The building contractor also sealed a deal worth S$16.7 million to build a 7-storey industrial building at Paya Lebar i-Park.

Work on the projects will begin in May and is expected to be completed by November 2010.

Lian Beng says its total orders now stand at some S$700 million.

In January, Lian Beng partnered LaSalle Investment Management to acquire Emerald Mansion for redevelopment for S$148 million. - CNA /ls

Ascendas Acquires Goodman's Stake in Acendas-MGM, A-REIT

Source : Channel NewsAsia, 12 March 2008

Office park developer Ascendas is taking full control of the manager of Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust (A-REIT).

Under a deal announced on Wednesday, Ascendas is buying over the 40 percent stake in Ascendas-MGM Funds Management Limited that is now held by Goodman Group.

Upon completion of the sale, Ascendas-MGM Funds Management Limited will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ascendas, and will be renamed Ascendas Funds Management (S) Limited.

In addition, Ascendas will acquire the 6.28 percent stake in A-REIT, now held by Goodman Group, for about S$158.2 million. This will give Ascendas an interest of 26.77 percent stake in A-REIT.

Ascendas said the deal would enable the company to fully extend its capabilities to benefit A-REIT.

A-REIT has 80 properties and total assets worth over S$3.4 billion as at the end of December 2007. - CNA/so

Tall Orders For HDB Flats

Source : TODAY, Wednesday, 12 March, 2008

BTO project Punggol Spring four times oversubscribed

THE demand for public housing continues to be brisk. Case in point: The Housing Development Board's (HDB) first build-to-order project this year at Punggol Spring (artist's impression) is already four times oversubscribed.

New flats aside, property agents have also described the HDB resale market as the kingpin for the real estate sector this year.

The application for Punggol Spring, where 494 units of four-room flats will be built, will not close until March 17 but the project is already oversubscribed with 2,093 applications.

The Punggol Spring development makes up some of the 4,500 new flats that the HDB has committed to building for the first half of this year. Prices of the Punggol Spring flats range from $204,000 to $259,000.

Apart from this build-to-order development, the HDB's bi-monthly sale of four-room and larger flats last month also drew overwhelming response, with more than 10,000 flat buyers vying for just 278 units.

Mr Eugene Lim, associate director of ERA, said: "The buyers are usually first timers and they do not have so much cash. As the norm is to pay cash over value for the resale market, they are inevitably being pushed to the new flat market where they don't have to come up with as much cash or any cash at all."

Still, the transaction volume in the HDB resale market is expected to remain strong. Industry players expect 30,000 units to be sold this year, 1,000 more than last year.

They also expect prices to increase by about 10 per cent, compared to last year's rise of more than 17 per cent.

Property agents said the spike last year was partly due to a sharp rise in cash over valuation (COV), but this is likely to change, they added, as buyers have hit a threshold when it comes to forking out more cash.

Propnex CEO Mohamed Ismail said: "The central areas — Queenstown, Bukit Merah, Toa Payoh — were getting as high as $100,000 but such prices are not sustainable in the long term.

"Therefore, I foresee that for the very high-end side in the central location, the COV will dip quite drastically."

Despite the high demand for flats, agents are confident there will be enough to go around, whether it is for families or singles.

They also welcomed the HDB's new incentive to offer an extra $9,000 grant to singles who buy a resale flat and live with their parents, as announced by Mr Lim Boon Heng, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, in Parliament last week.

The scheme, however, is unlikely to have any impact on the market given the small segment it serves. — CHANNEL NEWSASIA

Lower Than Expected Bids For Jurong Site

Source : The Strait Times, Mar 12, 2008

99-YEAR LANDED PLOT

A LANDED plot in Jurong West that was tipped by one consultant to fetch bids of over $30 million failed to even get to half of that.

Just two offers were placed for the 99-year leasehold Westwood Avenue plot, a stark reflection of thefast-deteriorating sentiment in the property market.

The top bid of just $11.8 million, or $78 per sq ft (psf), of land area came from Boon Keng Development, with Sunway Concrete Products offering $10.33 million, or just $68.1 psf.

Cushman & Wakefield managing director Donald Han, who had tipped that the site could fetch more than $30 million, or $200 to $250 psf, said the offers were 'defensive bids' that would allow the developer to withstand a fallout from the global creditcrunch.

CBRE Research executive director Li Hiaw Ho said the 'relatively conservative bids' for the Jurong site, which is in an established residential area, reflects the market's cautious sentiment.

Assuming the tender is awarded, terrace houses on the 14,098.9 sq m site, within a 10-minute drive of the Boon Lay MRT station, could sell for $900,000 to $1.1 million each, property consultants said.

These levels are just slightly above current prices being transacted in Westwood Park and Westville, said Mr Li. Recent deals of intermediate terrace houses in Westwood Park and Westville ranged between $820,000 and $990,000, he said.

Landed Housing Plot Draws Top Bid Of Just $77.80 PSF

Source : The Business Times, March 12, 2008

Only one other offer made; poor show seen as sign of uncertain market

IN what is seen as a sign of an uncertain property market, a landed housing parcel in Jurong West drew only two bids, and a low top bid of $11.8 million - or just $77.80 per square foot (psf) - at the close of a government land tenderyesterday.

The higher bid, put in by Boon Keng Development, was significantly below what analysts had said the site could fetch. Cushman & Wakefield managing director Donald Han, for example, reckoned that the plot would fetch $200-$250 psf of land area.

'The price is really below expectation,' said Mr Han yesterday. 'But with the market sentiment being so weak, you can expect wild swings in prices. Developers will be sitting on the sidelines or might not want to bid their best prices.'

The other bid was put in by Sunway Concrete Products, a unit of Malaysian- listed Sunway Holdings. It offered $10.3 million, or $68.1 psf of land area.

Li Hiaw Ho, executive director for research at CB Richard Ellis, said that both bids were 'relatively conservative' and reflected the current cautious sentiment in the market.

The 99-year leasehold site on Westwood Avenue has a land area of 151,759 sq ft. Property analysts estimate that some 50-60 landed homes can be built on the site.

'Nevertheless, based on the highest bid of $78 psf, terrace houses on this site could still be sold for $900,000 to $1 million each,' Mr Li said. This is slightly higher than recent transactions of intermediate terrace houses in nearby Westwood Park and Westville, which were between $820,000 and $990,000 each.

Potential buyers, Mr Li added, could comprise locals working in the manufacturing firms in Jurong and Tuas, as well as academics at nearby Nanyang Technological University.

Market watchers, however, said that it is possible that the government might not award the site because of the low price.

The price looks especially low when considering other recent government sales of landed housing plots, Mr Han pointed out.

In October, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) auctioned off 12 sub-divided landed housing plots near Sembawang Beach which can be developed into a total of 57 landed homes. The auction fetched a total of $37.09 million, which worked out to about $285 psf of land area on average.

And in January, the government decided not to sell a short-term office site in Aljunied because the sole bid offered too low a price. The decision followed a recent string of lower-than-expected offers for state land.